A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics
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A Weblog of Centrist Voices in American Politics | |
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November 12, 2006Feingold Not RunningPopulist Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold, the favorite to carry the torch of the Howard Dean wing of the Democratic Party in 2008, is not running for President. This is a surprise. I have liked Feingold's honesty and independence for a long time and thought his presence would make the race interesting on the Democratic side. Who is going to lead the Deaniacs now? Will it be this guy? Note: Two of the early favorites at the Daily Kos, Mark Warner and now Russ, are not running. Hmmmm.... Could they have determined, like Ned Lamont learned, that the nutroots aren't really a significant base of support? Posted by Starbucks Republican at November 12, 2006 01:34 PMComments
test Posted by: Marcus at November 13, 2006 03:12 AMthere seems to be a problem with the board as I tried to post a few sentences and got an error in I guess I can't use the word ame-nay Lamont did very well amongst Democratic Party voters and Lieberman did very well among Republican voters. Kind of what we expected since the GOP all but conceded Conneticut (only 10% voted GOP). Lamont's tactical mistake was not hammering on Lieberman's support of the Iraq war but on trying to "spread out". Why Al Gore can win. I think we've had it with dynasties for a while and GWB has made Americans weary of Republican presidents. Even McCain will have a hard time convincing independents and potential crossover voters otherwise. He can easily be tied to GOP congressional failures. Gore is tied to Clinton and a pretty effectively run administration (i.e. FEMA worked then) and remember Gore does have a track record of shrinking government. Bill Clinton has a lot of star power and people have a lot of nostalgia. McCain or whomever will have on their backs a host of Bush administration problems in the Dept of Interior, FEMA, DHS, etc. You'll see a nice steady drip drip of congressional investigations all geared towards constantly reminding the public how badly the GOP screwed up their oversight role and you can bet that in 2008 one of the issues will be McCain's voting record and how much he went along with everything that pissed the voters off this November. BTW, Dean did a very nice job of defeating the GOP, despite the "Democratic establishment" misgivings.
As a centrist, this bit about Gore (on his own "DraftGore" website) will sure get me enthusiastic about his campaign: In a major speech in Washington D.C, Al Gore gave a powerful indictment of President Bush's assault on the Consitution and called for a special counsel to investigate the Administration's gross abuse of executive powerPosted by: c3 at November 13, 2006 08:23 AM Why Al Gore can win. Just because the Republicans have lost support lately doesn't mean the Democrats can put anybody on the ballot and win. Remember John Kerry? Just two years ago, they nominate a self-interested, pacifist idiot and lose to one of the most unpopular Presidents ever. Now, you're talking about nominating a raving lunatic? Good luck with that. To tie in with the original post, I think whoever carries the torch of Howard Dean would be a long-shot to win the general election, to put it nicely. Posted by: Justin at November 13, 2006 08:30 AMAl Gore might be able to win the 2008 dem nom, be he would get his @ss handed to him in the general election. Any darling of the more liberal fraction of the democratic party is going to send independents and moderates running back to the GOP unless the GOP is stupid enough to run an arch-conservative against him. How many one-time losers have gone on to win a 2nd party nomination? How many of them have won the presidency on their 2nd try? How many who lacked charisma? Sure, there's a first time for everything, but will 2008 be it? Doubt it. I recall quite clearly that in the aftermath of 2004, jubilant conservatives declared a mandate. How did that work out? Now in 2006, we have the same story but a different team. Lots of democrats are promising big changes, Marcus's protestations notwithstanding. Today's Boston Globe reported on the democrats plans to call for a phased Iraq withdrawal beginning as early as mid 2007. By how many votes did the last such plan fail by? Did the democrats pick up enough votes to cover that spread? Now is the time where eager beavers talk out their @ss before they check to see if their parties' ducks are all lined up in a row. Oops, look, there goes Joe Lieberman, wandering off the reservation. [What's 51-1? I think stubborn facts shoudl use this as the math test until 2008!] Maybe he'll be just in time to become John McCain's running mate, after spending months fighting the rest of the party in high-profile battles against the most unrealistic democratic proposals. Sure, the Kos crowd thinks Joe is a heretic, but just about everyone else sees him as a politician with much better than average integrity. Nancy Pelosi? Is she ready to find out how uneasy sits the rump of she who wears the crown? How are the more vocal and more left democratic supporters going to like the new tune she has been singing? Her fans are going to want to hear those old bomb-throwing favorites, and if she shows up telling them she's only singing tunes from her new album Damn, I Have to Govern Now, fans will get grumpy pretty fast. The rumor is that the first single is called What is this paper sack and what do I do with it? Posted by: bk at November 13, 2006 09:38 AMAl Gore might be able to win the 2008 dem nom, be he would get his @ss handed to him in the general election...A light just went on for me.... Candidate loses close election with some claims of fraud. Losing candidate floats around for awhile not in elected office. Candidate develops a reputation as having deeper insights into key problems at hand. Candidate arise some eight years later and when the election. Now with history and given the tendency of history to repeat itself, I have one question for Al Gore; "Do you have a secret plan to end the war" ;-) Posted by: c3 at November 13, 2006 03:13 PM I am not bother by Vice President Gore's 'liberal' past as I am about his 'Buddist Temple' connection[s]! Like LBJ [the original George W. Bush] and HHH, Gore is tied to a failed Chief Executive. |
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